BCA opened seven years ago, late and over-budget. It's now on its third CEO, following a lacklustre Lambeth apparatchik, and then a well-qualified successor who left after 15 months, soon after a new chairman and board members were advertised for, their appointment in turn triggered by the rapid and ignominious sacking of the previous chairman. And now it's reduced to opening a few hours a week.
After all this time, I think it's reasonable to take stock of progress: 1) BCA is poorly publicised - we Urbans know about it, but I doubt it's recognised across the rest of London, b) it's not been able to raise enough money to establish a sound financial footing, relying instead on emergency handouts from Lambeth, c) the site itself could be unavoidably unsuitable, just too small to put on shows that are worth visiting, d) messages in this thread suggest that outreach is lacking - little in the way of school visits (is that right ?), e) little exploitation of the asset, e.g. cafe or courtyard, f) decay of structure, graffiti is not cleaned off the walls of the building
So, after seven years, is there any reason to expect a turnaround in BCA's fortunes ? I can't really see it, although I'm happy to be proved wrong. Rather than let a slowly dying institution stagger on into the future, perhaps it would be kinder to put it out of its misery. The archives could be entrusted to the world-class archivists at the British Library, Kew National Archives, Museum of London or similar. And the building could have a second life: perhaps a community restaurant downstairs, and offices and meeting spaces upstairs, operated by Lambeth for local groups on a non-profit basis.
blackculturalarchives.org
docs.google.com
